“Bromance” Final Tables Partners Tourney

Karaoke Phil and CPL Historian Mark Wittig took to the felt for the Valentine’s Day NL Hold ’em/Limit OH8 Partners tournament held at Running Aces Harness Park.

By the time late and re-entries completed at the end of level 4 there were 24 teams participating. Starting stacks were 10K in chips and blind levels were 30 minutes. One player of a team played the odd numbered levels of NL Hold ’em, while the other played Limit OH8 during the even numbered levels. For our CPL team – Wittig kicked off the action with Phil doing the honors for OH8.

Mark did a nice job of building the team’s stack during level 1 and turned over 12,050 chips to Karaoke for level 2. Phil held ground in the first OH8 level but only managed to grow the stack to 12,075.

Level 3 saw Mark Wittig stagnating some. Still, he ended the level down only 100 at 11,975 in chips. Karaoke took off in level four to end the two level stagnation. The level included running a flop bluff from the BB with A/2/3/9 and three limpers. While many would raise with this hand, Karaoke decided to disguise the hand and checked his option. He was looking for a later check raise opportunity, but when the flop ran out 7/J/J it seemed likely that he wouldn’t get such an opportunity. The SB checked and Karaoke fired at the pot. After a quick fold, short tank fold and quick fold he took down the pot and added 1200 chips to the team’s stack After chopping up a couple of other multiplayer pots he ended the level with 14,775 chips. Rebuys/Late entries ended and we had 20 teams left – which included 2 teams that had re-entered.

Level 5 saw one team get eliminated. Mark went into the tank on a check raise against his pocket Ts after a flop of Rag/Rag/Q. Rather than contest the pot he laid the Ts down and turned over 11,500 chips to Phil for level 6. Karaoke believes he made one bad play during level 6 – on the last hand of the level. He picked up A/5/T/K double suited and called. In and of itself not a bad play but he had thought of laying the hand down. However, he got that “feeling” that you sometimes get and thought the hand would hit. The flop paired his 5 but the 4/9 for the other two cards didn’t particularly help. He did hit a club – giving him a back door flush possibility. The turn was a 6 and he should’ve dumped the hand by this point if not earlier. However, he called down the turn and river – and, while there were possible outs, none hit and he needlessly dropped 3200 in chips. That left Mark with a stack of 6300 to begin his fight in Level 7. There were 17 teams left following level 6. And, Level 7 was when they would begin to drop hard.

Wittig went into full “blind-me-down” mode during level 7. He let the big blind pass him twice and folded for more than 18 minutes before moving all in for his last 2700. He went runner, runner to nail the straight and tripled up plus. He was able to push a little later and steal the blinds to end the level with 7300 chips. An even dozen teams remained.

With blinds increasing to 800/1600 and a 100 ante in Level 8 it was now Karaoke’s turn to try and make something happen. Using patience, Phil moved into blind-me-down mode letting sub-par hands go while waiting for the right opportunity. That chance came with about 3600 chips remaining when he picked up A/2/4/Q and was three handed. The flop came Q/Q/7 and by the turn he had his last 1100 chips in the pot – now heads up against A/2/3/K. He doubled up plus to 10,900 chips. A spate of poor hands however had Phil back to folding. With 90 seconds left in the level the field collapsed to the final table and 10 teams left. As the draw would have it there would be one more OH8 hand before level nine and our heroes were back into the big blind for the second time in 4 hands. Karaoke got up with only 4300 chips remaining.

Mark took over for level 9’s blinds of 1K/2K with a 200 chips ante on the small blind. He folded. He continued searching for the right moment. We moved down to 9 teams left. He moves all in and…..chops the pot. But with 1800 in antes it still means some extra chips for us – a victory. He plays the next hand from the cut off when it’s folded around to him. He moves all in for about 4500 in chips holding K/9 suited. The button tanks for a moment and calls with A/T. The other short stack at the table snap calls with pocket Js.

The board runs out – hitting the Ace and two teams are eliminated. We had slightly fewer chips so we get 9th with the other team claiming the 8th spot. The top 3 teams are scheduled to cash.

Former MSPT winner and last year’s 10th place Player of the Year Jason Seitz was still alive in the tourney as we departed.